Traditionally, mating printed circuit ("PC") boards are interconnected either perpendicular to each other, as in a backplane configuration for a personal computer, or parallel to each other in a stacked array. In some product applications, however, especially involving miniaturized housings which may include one or more curved walls, it is not feasible nor even possible to arrange the PC boards in the traditional parallel or perpendicular orientation. Rather, the product design may require that the PC boards be disposed angularly of each other and, more specifically, angularly converging towards each other about a pivot axis.
One, or both, of the angularly-converging printed circuit boards may include a connector housing provided with a flexible electrical connector. These flexible electrical connectors include a plurality of finely-divided circuit elements or traces on a thin flexible film wrapped about a suitable elastomeric core, as more fully described in AMP AMPLIFLEX Surface Mount Connectors, Catalog 82161 Revised August 1992, Copyright 1985 and 1991 by AMP Incorporated, Harrisburg, Pa. These traces may be gold-plated over a nickel-coated copper foil. Typically, the traces are 3 mils wide and are on 7 mils centers for a 4 mils spacing therebetween. A complete line of flexible electrical connectors is supplied by AMP Incorporated of Harrisburg, Pa. under its registered trademark "AMPLIFLEX".
It is imperative that as the angularly-converging printed circuit boards are pivoted together, that each flexible electrical connector is not damaged inadvertently by an edge of the connector housing on the other board.